Advents in multispectral reconnaissance above earth’s orbit have been plenty this year and the U.S. and Japan have responded in kind. Besides the more innocuous meteorological and mapping applications, surveillance and military frameworks implied by China’s clandestine space activity in 2023 are prompting swift response by other developed countries.

On the 15th of December China sent a highly classified optical satellite towards earth’s geostationary belt, the Yaogan-41, using the country’s largest launch vehicle. Comparable with the Falcon 9 with a total thrust of 9,600 kN.

The sixth Long March 5 rocket lifted off from the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 5:41 a.m. PST (1341 UTC) Dec. 15. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) announced launch success around an hour later. 

CASC revealed that its China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) subsidiary built Yaogan-41 but provided no images nor further details. State news agency Xinhua described the satellite as an optical remote sensing satellite.

“The satellite will be used in land survey, crop yield estimation, environmental management, meteorological warning and forecasting, and comprehensive disaster prevention and reduction,” Xinhua stated.

The military applications for this mission are implicit in the classified nature of the launch itself. What is known about the Yaogan-41 (“Remote Sensing-41”) is that this launch has followed a slew of Yaogan launches this year.

26 Yaogan satellites were sent into orbit this year alone and none have a military designation as of yet. Even China’s CX-5 has a military designation but are still largely shrouded in secrecy and their purpose is only speculated to be ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) by nature of their triplet launches.

U.S. Space Force space domain awareness cataloged the spacecraft in a 195 by 35,815-kilometer orbit above Earth’s equator inclined by 19.51 degrees.

This vantage point would allow it to constantly view about one-third of the Earth’s surface. Geostationary optical data would be useful for security, meteorology, climate studies and environmental monitoring purposes.

This news comes after a historic launch in August whereby China launched the world’s first Geosynchronous Synthetic Aperture Radar (GEO SAR) satellite aboard a Long March 3B.

The rocket carrying the Ludi Tance 4-01 satellite launched from the Xichang launch center in the province of Sichuan and is gradually climbing to a geosynchronous orbit with an altitude of roughly 22,370 miles (36,000km).

A geosynchronous orbit is one that is fixed. A GEO SAR satellite utilizes radar capabilities in the way of electromagnetic radiation in the form of pulses utilizing in the visible and near-infrared wavebands. This is the EM spectrum from 780 nm to 2500 nm. It utilizes microwave pulses and forms images by measuring the time it gets back to the satellite sensor which can penetrate clouds, fog, and forestry, for accurate data; day or night.

Japan recently announced that by 2025, iQPS (Q-shu Pioneers of Space) plans to operate a 36-satellite constellation to gather data and imagery with a resolution of one meter “of almost any point in the world within 10 minutes and to conduct fixed-point observations of particular areas once every 10 minutes.”

True Anomaly, a Colorado-based startup, emerged from stealth mode earlier this year to announce that it had raised $30 Mn to date, including $17 Mn in a recent “Series A” round led by the venture capitalist firm Eclipse. Their Jackal satellite will use SpaceX rockets to propel into LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and GEO (Geostationary Orbit).

The Jackal spacecraft will not be equipped with warheads or lasers, but they will be capable of performing so-called Rendezvous Proximity Operations (RPO). Essentially, they will be able to maneuver next to satellites of other countries in order to intercept the information transmitted by them. Therefore, the developers clearly say that these spacecraft are designed specifically for conducting space warfare.

According to Former U.S. Air Force major Even “Jolly” Rogers, the U.S. is “in active competition with Russia and China for freedom of action and dominance of the space domain. And it’s evolving very quickly.”

The U.S. based True Anomaly will be demonstrating RPO with two of its Jackal satellites early next year.